Julian Schnabel

(Born in New York in 1951)
Untitled (Lola), 1989, inscribed Lola, oil, gesso on velvet, 275.5 x 214 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, April 21 - May 16, 1990 (label)
Collection Jean Hamon-Bullion, France (acquired from the above)
Sale, Digard Auction, Paris, November 28, 2023, lot 89 (label)
Daniel Blau, Munich

Exhibited:
Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, Julian Schnabel, April 21 - May 16, 1990
Baudoin Lebon, Paris, Art Élysées, October 23–27, 2014 (label)
Daniel Blau, Munich, Art Basel, 2024

„Using already existing materials establishes a level of ethnographicness in the work; I mean it brings a real place and time into aesthetic reality … Letters are real.
For me they’re pictorial elements that also have a sociological connotation and a historical, temporal connotation.”
Julian Schnabel, quoted after Hans Werner Holzwarth, Louise Kugelberg (ed.), Julian Schnabel, Cologne 2023, p. 187

There are several characteristic intuitions that can be traced back to Julian Schnabel's travels in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and which continue to form the basis of his aesthetic to this day: a painter should engage with the long, complex history of art rather than follow the trends of the art world; the dimensions of a painting are a key element of its effectiveness; the tension between fragment and unity is a fundamental creative principle; there are no restrictions in terms of material or subject matter; the contrast between figuration and abstraction is meaningless, and every human experience has its place in art. Julian Schnabel makes art out of life and finds his materials in the structure of everyday existence. He uses broken plates as impractical picture backgrounds, paints on tarpaulins from market stalls and army vehicles, Kabuki theater backdrops, or, as in “Lola”—a series created in 1989 and named after his daughter—on velvet: surfaces that each bring their own history to the work. “I want my life to be in my work, compressed into my painting like a car in a scrap press. Otherwise, my work would just be some random stuff” (Julian Schnabel). This urgency runs through his entire oeuvre.
(compare: Hans Werner Holzwarth, Louise Kugelberg (ed.), Julian Schnabel, Preface, Cologne 2023)